In this case, CNet reporters Greg Sandoval and Declan McCullagh report, the phone has yet to be found:

Apple electronically traced the phone to a two-floor, single-family home in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood, according to the source.

When San Francisco police and Apple’s investigators visited the house, they spoke with a man in his twenties who acknowledged being at Cava 22 on the night the device went missing. But he denied knowing anything about the phone. The man gave police permission to search the house, and they found nothing, the source said. Before leaving the house, the Apple employees offered the man money for the phone no questions asked, the source said, adding that the man continued to deny he had knowledge of the phone.

CNet says the phone also may have been sold on eBay Craigslist for $200, but provides no further details.

Apple has not yet released any details about its next iPhone. Rumors indicate it may be released in October, and may be slimmer, with a slightly bigger screen, than the iPhone 4.

In last year’s lost-iPhone incident, a prototype device was left in a bar in Redwood City, Calif. The phone was sold to Gizmodo for $5,000, and two men were charged earlier this month with misdemeanors in the case. Charges were not filed against Brian Chen, who wrote the story describing the phone, and who at one point had his computers confiscated by San Mateo Sheriff’s deputies.